It has been a while since Gully Boy hit the theaters. Also, quite some time since it was released on a streaming site.
The likes of me have watched the movie multiple times, we have learnt the songs, we have internalised the angst of characters and we know the thrill it brings on certain moments.
However, what we see is the final product that was made after months of hard work. And to give us some insight on what happened behind the scenes, Excel Movies released Making of Gully Boy on YouTube today.
In the video, co-writer and director Zoya Akhtar – along with cast and crew – explains characters, music and cinematography of the movie. Here are 15 things we learnt about Gully Boy from the Making of Gully Boy.
1. Starting with the writing process, Zoya said there were a lot of rappers who were interviewed for the script. However, 2 people whose stories stayed with her and Reema Kagti were Divine and Naezy.
2. As for the bang-on Bambaiya lingo the characters use, it was the work of musicians who were there on the set throughout the shooting process.
3. From there, she went on to speak a bit about the characters. Starting with protagonist Murad – played by Ranveer Singh. She said she couldn’t imagine anyone playing the part and even with all the technical challenges, the toughest part for him was transforming his body.
4. Moving on to Safeena – played by Alia Bhatt. Zoya explained why she was so restless and violent. Why she behaved the way she did and why she loved Murad so much.
5. Sky, another important character played by Kalki Koechlin reminds Zoya of herself. She also explained why.
6. From there, she went on to talk about MC Sher, Murad’s mentor and friend in the movie. It was a tough casting choice as they needed someone who has a presence strong enough to shine alongside Ranveer Singh.
7. However, Sidharth Chaturvedi didn’t take much time to get into the skin of the character. Here’s an anecdote from his preparation process.
8. Arguably the most loved character – Moeen – had the biggest character arch and Zoya says it wasn’t an easy character to play for the same reason.
9. Coming to other aspects of the movie, Arjun Singh – the assistant director – revealed how they found the place in the middle of the slum to build a set with at least 70 artificial houses.
10. And not many people know, Zoya had consciously decided to not include the colour blue in the movie, which is almost symbolic to Mumbai slums because their roofs are blue. Even in the editing process, blue was totally wiped out – as told by the editor Nitn Baid.
11. Music, of course, is like another character in the movie and all the rappers were given room to create original music which made the movie what it is.
12. There’s also other pieces of trivia in the video. For instance, how the bottle just wouldn’t break on Kalki’s head.
13. And that the mic Murad uses for recording his first song, was also Divine’s first.
There are many other things in the video which prove that this movie is a work of art for ages. Here’s the complete video of the making.